Touch it not (John Harrison Tenney)

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• (Posted 2024-06-12)  CPDL #80921:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2024-06-12).   Score information: Letter, 8 pages, 357 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: Touch it not
Composer: John Harrison Tenney
Lyricist: Josephine Pollard
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong, Glee

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1868 F. J. Huntington & Co.
Description: TEMPERANCE GLEE

Original text and translations

English text

When you see the ruddy wine,
        touch it not! touch it not!
Tho’ with brightness it may shine,
        touch it not! touch it not!
    There is danger in the using,
    There is safety in refusing;
And the lip that once has tasted,
    Cannot trust itself again.

With Temptation close at hand,
        touch it not! touch it not!
God will help you to withstand,
        touch it not! touch it not!
    Better far your friendship sever,
    Than destroy your soul forever,
And the one that urges is a fiend,
    And cannot be a friend.

Tho’ the ruddy wine may glow,
        touch it not! touch it not!
If true happiness you’d know,
        touch it not! touch it not!
    Tho’ the magic spell is weaving,
    Still alluring, still deceiving,
Be a man, and never, never be
    Entrapped in such a snare.

Of the sparkling wine beware,
        touch it not! touch it not!
Of your conscience have a care,
       touch it not! touch it not!
    Oh, let ev’ry son and daughter,
    Drink the pure and sparkling water,
If they would not know the horrors
    Of a drunkard’s life and death.